science reporting
clock | May 29, 2007Remember back in November, when everyone got excited about JoVe (the Journal of Visulized Experiments)?
Well, it is not alone in its niche any more. There is now another site similar to that: Lab Action.
Of course I homed in onto videos of scoring lobster aggression and Drosophila aggression, but there is quite a lot of other stuff there. It is pretty much like a YouTube for science so feel free to post your contributions.
clock | May 23, 2007In small, easily-digestible chunks:
Re-Framing Science While Chris Mooney's Away..Framing II: Weapons in the Form of WordsFraming III: Happy FeetFraming IV: The Lorax Phenomenon
Please go, read and try to comment (politely if you can)...
clock | May 17, 2007The Fly Spontaneous Behavior paper is generating quite a lot of buzz.
Bjorn has collected some of the best blogospheric responses, including these from Mark Chu-Carroll, Mark Hoofnagle and Kate.
He also got Slashdotted - of course, whoever posted that on Slashdot failed to a) link to the paper, b) link to the press release and c) link to Bjorn's blog. Instead, a little blurb from one of the worst media articles from MSNBC is the only link. Those got linked later in the comments, so I hope Bjorn enjoys the traffic (it will go away tomorrow never to come back again).
Bjorn has also posted…
clock | May 7, 2007Chris and Matt just announced their tour as well as a scienceblogs.com page dedicated solely to Speaking Science 2.0. You can check out the original blogospheric responses here (there have been only a few comments since I quit updating that post - most of the debate was highjacked by the interesting, but unrelated, discussion of the fight between religion and reason).
clock | May 6, 2007Three out of ten Republican presidential candidates raised hands in the recent debate indicating they do not believe in evolution. Jason has an excellent round-up of responses (Arianna Huffington rocks!) with some good comments by readers as well. How can you help combat scientific ignorance? If your blog is NOT a science blog, try to do what Mike suggests and link to five science-related posts every week.
There is plenty of stuff here at scienceblogs.com, but you can also use this page when you are looking for science posts, especially the science-related carnivals listed at the very…
clock | May 4, 2007Making the second Science Blogging Conference even bigger and better, we are happy to announce that the January 19th, 2008 meeting will be hosted by Sigma Xi (publishers of American Scientist) in their gorgeous new building in the Research Triangle Park. Their conference facilities can house more people (225 as opposed to 170 we had last time) and provide more space for shmoozing between and after the sessions.
For those who arrive early, there will be Friday afternoon events, sessions and meals on or close to the UNC campus. We have tentatively secured two excellent session leaders so…
clock | May 4, 2007Arunn and Selva are wondering why more Indian scientists don't write blogs, while Danica wonders the same about Serbian scientists. I guess every nation will have its own idiosyncratic ways of getting there, but it is also important to note that in the USA where most of the popular science blogs are located and where there are LOTS of scientists, only a tiny percentage writes blogs or considers doing so in the future. Canadians, Western Europeans and Australians are already catching up in proportion to their own scientific populations. The rest of the world will probably catch up in a few…
clock | May 3, 2007There is a new (nice and long) article by Laura Bonetta about science blogging in today's issue of the journal Cell.
Bloggers on A Blog Around The Clock, Pharyngula, Aetiology, Framing Science, The Daily Transcript, Sandwalk, In the Pipeline, Nobel Intent, Useful Chemistry, De Rerum Natura and Panda's Thumb are mentioned and/or interviewed. A couple of carnivals, e.g., Tangled Bank, Mendel's Garden and Gene Genie are also mentioned.
For those who have no access to The Cell, I am assuming that each one of us will egotistically quote the part about oneself (like we did last month with The…
clock | May 3, 2007NPR has started a year-long series on climate called Climate Connections. The other day, they broadcast the first in a series of their educational segments, starting at the very beginning: the carbon atom. You can read the intro here and watch the video here but just listening to the audio in the car was absolutely fascinating (the video is close, but much shorter and not identical to the first quarter of the audio segment for which the podcast is at the "listen" button).
The science was very basic yet completely correct and the entire segment was so fun to listen to. It was fast and…
clock | May 2, 2007Of course, I was not the only one commenting on the recent duck phallus paper. You should check out the other blogospheric responses, e.g., by Carl, PZ, RPM, Grrrl, Laelaps, Neil, Belle, Zuzu, Guru and many others.
Unfortunately, most people link only to each other, or to the press release, or to the NYTimes article. The articles are fine, but they are simplified for the mass audience. If you are a scientist, you should read the original paper to get all the details.
Furthermore, many commenters on blogs have asked some very good questions about the research which remained unanswered, e.…
clock | April 25, 2007Update: The issue has been resolved amicably and Shelley has some further thoughts. And some even more further thoughts. The discussion will continue here on Scienceblogs and elsewhere in the follwoing days....
If you read other Scienceblogs and not just me, you are likely quite aware of the "Wiley Affair", but if you are not here is a quick summary:
My esteemed colleague here at scienceblogs, Shelley Batts of the Retrospectacle blog, did what we all do all the time - what is one of the primary role of science blogs: compared what a scientific paper says to what the press releases and…
clock | April 25, 2007There is a job opening for a science writer at Analytical Chemistry. If you are a science writer, or you know any science writers (or people who want to be science writers) who want to live in the DC area and have studied science at a graduate level, please encourage them to contact Liz Zubritsky at: e_zub AT acs DOT org.
The job does not require a Ph.D. in science, but only some graduate studies in science, not necessarily chemistry. That is because the job requires reading a lot of scientific papers and the writers have to be able to get a sense of what's important about a paper quickly…
clock | April 24, 2007Science publisher extends journalists' access:
A leading science publisher is granting journalists from developing countries access to its scientific papers that are not otherwise freely available. Elsevier announced the initiative at the World Conference of Science Journalists in Australia last week (19 April).
clock | April 20, 2007It has 'Coturnix' written all over it, don't you think? I am even wearing my PLoS t-shirt right now as I am typing this!
But, why is it necessary to move to San Francisco? My wife is terrified of earthquakes and CA is one state she always said she would never move to.
Looking at the job description, everything can be easily done sitting in my pajamas here in Chapel Hill, or on a submarine, or on the Moon. It's all online:
PLoS ONE Online Community Manager
The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit advocacy and publishing organization located in the China Basin area of San…
clock | April 19, 2007Science journalists and science communicators who attended the Knight New Media Center Best Practices: Covering Science in Cyberspace seminar in March 2007 collectively wrote a blog during the meeting:
Two dozen prominent science journalists and science communicators were invited to participate in this special conference with three goals: 1) Identify the critical issues facing science journalists in the digital age; 2) identify innovative forms of multimedia story-telling and presentation of complex issues online; and 3) identify "best practices" for coverage of science issues on digital…
clock | April 15, 2007Anton just spent a few days attending the AMA's 27th Annual Medical Communications Conference, where he gave a session about medicine and healthcare blogging. And of course, he blogged about the whole conference here, here, here, here and here. Who knows, there may be more coming. I hope to see Anton next week and pick his brains some more. But you can read his impressions and follow his links for more.
clock | April 13, 2007Truth, All the Truth, and Nothing but the Truth.
You are all familiar with the phrase. It actually figures prominently (though unspoken until now) in this whole discussion about framing science.
Nobody - absolutely nobody - ever suggests that anything but The Truth should be used when communicating science or communicating about science.
The wisdom of framing is that 'All the Truth' can be omitted, as too much information puts off the target audience in some cases, and is thus counterproductive.
The self-styled Defenders Of The Truth insist that a) 'All The Truth' should never be omitted,…
clock | April 10, 2007As you may have noticed, there is a vigorous debate going on in the blogosphere about framing science (all the links to all the relevant posts can be found if you click on that link).
For the uninitiated, this may look as a big dust-up and bar-brawl, but that is how blogosphere works, ya know, thesis + anthithesis and all. Dialectics, that's the word I was looking for! Does not mean that Larry Moran and I will refuse to have a beer with each other when he comes to Chapel Hill next time!
The sheer quantity of responses, the passion, and the high quality of most posts, thoughtful and…
clock | April 8, 2007I have updated my uber-long post about framing science. I added a lot more links to the blogospheric responses, as well as my own response to critics at the very bottom of the post. I have also re-posted it as a Diary on DailyKos which I hope you will visit to see the comments and to recommend (if you are a Kossian).
clock | April 8, 2007Talking about the hermetic cabal of scientists who never let any outsiders in....
Climate change fruitful for fungi:
A remarkable father-and-son research project has revealed how rising temperatures are affecting fungi in southern England.
Fungus enthusiast Edward Gange amassed 52,000 sightings of mushroom and toadstools during walks around Salisbury over a 50-year period.
Analysis by his son Alan, published in the journal Science, shows some fungi have started to fruit twice a year.
It is among the first studies to show a biological impact of warming in autumn.
"My father was a stonemason,…